HMS Royal Oak was one of five Revenge-class battleships built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. Completed in 1916, the ship first saw combat at the Battle of Jutland as part of the Grand Fleet. In peacetime, she served in the Atlantic, Home and Mediterranean fleets, more than once coming under accidental attack. Royal Oak drew worldwide attention in 1928 when her senior officers were controversially court-martialled, an event that brought considerable embarrassment to what was then the world's largest navy. Attempts to modernise Royal Oak throughout her 25-year career could not fix her fundamental lack of speed and, by the start of the Second World War, she was no longer suitable for front-line duty.
HMS Arab was a B-class torpedo boat destroyer of the British Royal Navy. She was laid down by J & G Thomson at Clydebank and completed by John Brown & Company who took over the yard.
HMAS Huon (D50), named after the Huon River, was a River-class torpedo-boat destroyer of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Originally to be named after the River Derwent, the ship was renamed before her 1914 launch because of a naming conflict with a Royal Navy vessel.
The Royal Navy's G class of diesel/electric submarines were launched between 1914 and 1917, and intended for operations in the North Sea and German Bight in World War I against German U-boats.
HMS Petard was a P-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service during the Second World War. She was one of only three P-class ships, out of the original eight, to survive the war in a serviceable condition.
HMS Thrasher was a "thirty-knotter" torpedo boat destroyer of the British Royal Navy. She was completed by Laird, Son & Company, Birkenhead, in 1897. One of four Quail-class destroyers, she served in the First World War, sinking the German submarine UC-39 in 1917, and was sold off after hostilities ended.
HMS C10 was one of 38 C-class submarines built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. The boat survived the First World War and was sold for scrap in 1922.
HMS Fearless was one of three Active-class scout cruisers built for the Royal Navy shortly before the First World War. Upon completion in 1913, the ship was assigned to the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron (LCS) of the 1st Fleet. She became flotilla leader of the 1st Destroyer Flotilla (DF) shortly before the start of the war in August 1914 and was transferred to the Harwich Force shortly after it began. Fearless participated in the Battle of Heligoland Bight and the Cuxhaven Raid later that year. The ship was transferred to the Grand Fleet in early 1915 and played a minor role in the Battle of Jutland the following year.
HMS G7 was a British G-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War I.
HMS G8 was a G-class submarine of the Royal Navy that saw service during World War I, costing an estimated £125,000.
HMS Petard was an Admiralty M-class destroyer destroyer built by Denny for the Royal Navy, commenced 5 July 1915 and launched on 24 March 1916. She saw service during the First World War. Postwar, she was sold for breaking up on 9 May 1921.
The Action of 22 September 1914 was an attack by the German U-boat U-9 that took place during the First World War. Three obsolete Royal Navy cruisers of the 7th Cruiser Squadron manned mainly by Royal Naval Reserve part-timers and sometimes referred to as the Live Bait Squadron, were sunk by U-9 while patrolling the southern North Sea.
HMS Pasley was an Admiralty M-class destroyer built on the Tyne by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson for the Royal Navy and launched on 15 April 1916. She saw service during the First World War.
The naval order of 24 October 1918 was a plan made by the German Admiralty at the end of World War I to provoke a decisive battle between the German High Seas Fleet and the British Grand Fleet in the southern North Sea. When the order to prepare for the sortie was issued on 29 October, mutiny broke out aboard the German ships. Despite the operation being cancelled, these in turn led to the more serious Kiel mutiny, which was the starting point of the November Revolution and the proclamation of the Weimar Republic.
HMS Exe was a River-class destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1901–1902 Naval Estimates. Named after the River Exe in southern England flowing through Exeter in the County of Devon, she was the first ship to carry this name in the Royal Navy. She served on the China Station before World War I and in the North Sea during the war. She was sold in 1920.
HMS Pakenham (G06) was a P-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy built and operated during World War II. Commissioned in early 1942, she took part in the invasion of Madagascar, and several Malta Convoys, before being disabled in a battle with Italian torpedo boats in April 1943 and scuttled.
HMS Douglas was an Admiralty type flotilla leader of the British Royal Navy. Built by Cammell Laird, Douglas commissioned in 1918, just before the end of the First World War. During the Second World War, Douglas served with Force H out of Gibraltar and as a convoy escort. She was sold for scrap in March 1945.
HMS Porpoise was an Acasta-class destroyer of the Royal Navy, which was built by Thornycroft between 1912 and 1914. Porpoise served through the First World War, taking part at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, where she was damaged. In 1920, she was sold to the Brazilian Navy serving under the name Alexandrino de Alencar and was renamed Maranhão in 1927. Maranhão remained in service when Brazil entered the Second World War, being used for patrol and convoy duties. She was disposed of in 1945.
HMS Negro was an Admiralty M-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was built by Palmers at Jarrow, Tyneside and launched 8 March 1916, but was sunk after colliding with HMS Hoste in the North Sea on 21 December 1916; depth charges from Hoste exploded and blew out Negro's hull plating. The ship was the second Royal Navy warship to bear the name Negro with the first being the 1813 Negro, ex-Niger.
Captain Cedric Naylor was a Royal Navy officer of the First and Second World Wars. Naylor was a merchant seaman before joining the Royal Naval Reserve on the outbreak of the First World War. In November 1915 he was posted as first lieutenant to HMS Penshurst, a Q-ship, a warship disguised as a merchant vessel intended to fool German U-boats into surfacing so they could be sunk. Naylor received the Distinguished Service Cross for his part in the sinking of SM UB-19 on 30 November 1916 and a bar for further operations in February and March 1917. Naylor was granted temporary command of Penshurst after its captain was incapacitated in June and the next month damaged a submarine, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. Further distinguished service in the following months saw him receive a bar to the medal and a transfer to the Royal Navy. Naylor was hunting for SM U-110 on Christmas Eve 1917 and Penshurst was struck by a torpedo fired by the submarine. Despite suffering heavy damage Naylor remained onboard with two gun crews, hoping the U-boat would surface to finish off the ship. When U-110 surfaced it was hit twice and damaged before Penshurst sank. Naylor survived and was awarded a second bar to his DSO. He commanded the sloop Polyanthus for the remainder of the war.
United Kingdom
